Projects and Products to Make the World a Happier Place. Jennifer Heynen designs sewing patterns, craft kits, quilting fabric, licenses her art to companies for Garden Flags, Bags, Accessories and more all in a Happy and Bright Style.

Jennifer Jangles

Saturday, June 29, 2013

My iron went on the fritz the other day and that was all I needed to buy this baby. I have had my eye on this Oliso Pro Iron for a couple of years, I saw it demonstrated at Quilt Market. It's awesome. See how it's above the surface? When you touch the handle it lowers to iron and when you let go, the iron raises back up. No need to lift it up on it's back. My neck and shoulders are a mess and this guy has helped lessen the lifting. It's probably not right to be so excited about an iron, but you sewing folks get it, right?

And then because I am such a nerd... right after I got my iron we happen to be having a party. I set up a table on the back porch so I could demonstrate how cool it was. Granted, none of them sew, and they could believe that I would spend so much on an iron, but none the less, the all played with it. It was a hit.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hello! Some fabric has made it's way into the Jennifer Jangles Etsy Shop. I was able to get the last bits of Polka Dot Garden and Tussie Mussie from In The Beginning. These have been out f print for over a year now and they are getting hard to come by.

Usually, I don't like to sell my fabric in my shop. I never want to compete with other quilt shops and stores that carry my fabric. But, folks are always asking me to sell it. These bits and ends are my solution. Now I have to admit, there's was a moment when I wanted to keep them all for myself. Truthfully, I have my eye on several fabrics I might not be able to part with for FOREVER. Any who, they are in the Etsy shop, everything I have is listed and there is no way to get more of these fabrics ever again. Yikes!

In the headline I mentioned free patterns. That's right, anyone who make a fabric purchase this month(June 2103) will receive a free Jennifer Jangles Sewing Pattern. You have your choice of four different patterns. And here they are....

Monday, June 24, 2013

When I was home last Thanksgiving, my mom had a new quilt rack hanging in her sewing studio that my uncle made her. I got to see him the next day at our family get together and guess what? He said he would make me one as well. He asked what kind of wood and stain would I like. He laughed a little, and I am sure he was thinking I was crazy, when I said I would rather paint it. So he sent me the rack unfinished and I had no choice but to paint it black and white striped. I love how it turned out.

The arms move from side to side to display your quilts. I got all of my quilts out and realized that I don't have very many made from my fabric. I guess now that I design fabric, I don't have time to quilt. Hmmm.... that needs to change. Either way I still love my new quilt rack. Thanks Uncle Wayne!

Friday, June 21, 2013

1. String an accent bead on to a head pin. Make a simple wire loop just above the bead and trim any excess wire. Do this four all four of the accent beads and headpins. Here's a tutorial if you need help with loops.

2. Open the jump ring and slide the link, two head pins and the charm on to it and close. Here's a tutorial if you need jump ring help.

3. Open the ear hook, just as you opened the jump ring and slide the other side of the link onto the hook and close.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A while back I mentioned I was on a mission to make pillows for my couches. The first ones ended up on my porch. The second attempt became a tutorial but doesn't really fit on my family room couches. They say the third time's a charm and I guess that's the case here as well. I finally got my pillows made.

We still need more, I like all of the bright color, but at least these are a start. Notice there is no ball fringe? Rhubarb was eating the balls off my last pillows, even though I would have ball fringe on pretty much everything, I realized that it would be detrimental to my pillows.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Hey, Hey, I realize there are a lot of new jewelry makers reading my blog these days and this is a super easy project for you. This is a chain necklace that I bought ready to embellish. The charms are all my ceramic creations and they are attached using jump rings.

Here is one of my pin-able or print-able tutorials to help you with jump rings. You can see the others here.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

How many days till summer? I thought I better get my Spring Twigs tutorial posted before I need to change the name to Summer twigs tutorial. I made these up on a whim the other day to bring something spring-y into the house.

I didn't take a lot of pictures as I was going but I will do my best to describe what I did and I bet you can handle it, you're clever. :)

First of all I found my green fabric scraps and sated fusing them together with fusible webbing. You know, iron one side of the webbing to the backside of your fabric, peel the paper backing off, place another piece of fabric on top of the webbing and press.

Next I cut out leaf shapes.

Lastly, I used double sided tape to attach the leaves to the sticks. I did this by cutting a piece about an inch long and sticking it down the center of the leaf. Next, I peeled off the backing of the tape and pressed the twig onto the leaf. Voila, finished.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

I am so excited to have these make their debut on Etsy. It feels like forever ago when I started on them. They took longer than expected, as everything seems to do, but I wanted to get everything right since I am new to PDFs. I am a big fan of buying PDF patterns because I don't have the patience to wait in the mail. My goal is to build up a nice selection of PDF patterns as well as continue my line of printed Jennifer Jangles patterns.

Okay, so here we go! First off, which might be one of my favorites..."Sew Happy". My first thoughts were, who really needs a stuffed sewing machine? Then, do we really need half of the things we sew? The answer is of course not, but I love the process of making things and this machine is no different. It's fun to make and can't you just see it with sewing your name or a friends name on the name plate? How cute would that be. My sewing machine is now decorating my sewing room. If I had little ones, I would let them "play sew" with it while I was really sewing.

Now we're on to Quincy and Maggie. Birkley named them for me. I wanted to offer an easy pattern, something that a beginner could handle. These bears are the result. You could put a rattle or a squeaker inside and a baby would have so much fun.

Oh Snap! is my camera bag purse. It's a purse you could use it to put you camera in or you could carry you keys and wallet in. I made the strap long for a cross body bag, but it could be shortened as a shoulder bag as well. It's fully lined but there are no zippers or snaps to worry about. The extra long flap in the front keeps everything inside.

Lil Okey is a baby version of my popular Okey Dokey Owl that's already in his second printing. Okey is about 12 inches tall so I thought it would fun to make some mini owls for him to watch over. These guys are a smaller and more simplified version of Okey Dokey.

Yipee! There are my new patterns. You can find them with instant download in my Etsy shop and soon over at Craftsy.

Monday, June 10, 2013

My fairy gardens got off to a slow start this year. It was just so cold that nothing was really growing. Finally, things are starting to get a little bigger. I snapped some quick photos to show you what they are looking like today.

My little flowers are starting to become hidden, I guess I need to do some trimming.

The bees and ladybugs like to stop by for a swing very now and then. :)

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Bead and Button is this weekend. It's the first one in ten years that I won't be at. But the good news is you can still get your hands on some of my beads. I'm always told they are much prettier in person. Maybe someday I can afford a staff photographer, ha ha dare to dream, right. Oh boy, I am totally digressing here. Glass Garden Beads will have a selection of my bead sets, charms, and pairs. I put together all sorts of beads sets like I do for my Etsy shop for them. Tell Shona I said Hi and welcome her to her first Bead and Button show. Here's the info....

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

My Etsy sale is going on for one more day. It ends at midnight Thursday June 6th. You can enter 25Sale in the coupon code box to recieve your 25% off in the shop. Thanks for helping me clear this baby out.

Monday, June 3, 2013

May is over and I am doing my best to do a monthly wrap up of the best blog posts so if you missed anything, you might catch it here. Also, I'm having a sale this week and I'm taking a work-cation from the shops so make sure you get to the bottom of this post for the those dates and more importantly, the coupon code.

Here are the highlights from May....

I didn't travel but was well represented at Surtex in New York City and at Quilt Market in Portland this month. Both shows happened to be on the same weekend this year...busy...busy.

There were several new tutorials added to the blog in May, they were....

There was more and you can always go through the archives and see them all, but for now these are the highlights of May.

Now on to dates. I am taking a work-cation. That means I will be working for the next few weeks but I won't be shipping anything from the shops, I will be slow returning e-mails, etc. I'll still be doing some posting, instgraming, face booking, you know, I can't stay completely away. But the shops Etsy and Jenniferjangles.com will be closed June 7th until the 24th. If you place an order in that time, I will ship it on June 25th.

In the meantime...if you've had you eye on something and you want to grab it up before then, here's a coupon to entice you.... 25% off everything in the Etsy shop. 25Sale is the code to use at checkout. I just went in an marked down some of the items and the 25% off can be used for additional savings. I would love it if I could have my shop emptied before Thursday. So I appreciate any of you who help me to to that. :)

Book: Sew Small

BOOK: Stitch Kitsch

BOOK: Extraordinary Colors

BOOK: Ceramic Bead Jewelry

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Jennifer Jangles uses affiliate programs from time to time for income. These are links that lead to Amazon, Craftsy, and others. This helps me be able to bring you free projects. I never link to anything that I don't personally use or recommend, you can be sure of that. I take this very seriously. As always, please contact me if you have questions.